So maybe not that deliberate? Or not orchestrated by Obama anyway. Citing "several people briefed on the exchange," The Times' Mark Landler and Mark Leibovich report that Biden apologized in the Oval Office just before Obama's historic ABC interview Wednesday in which he joined Biden in endorsing same-sex marriage. "It was easily the biggest incidence of crossed wires between the garrulous vice president and his more button-down boss," Landler and Leibovich write. "People who know both men said they did not believe that Mr. Biden had an ulterior motive in pre-empting the president, despite the fact that he has not ruled out running for president himself in 2016."

So maybe this wasn't as orchestrated as the devious hivemind has suggested, but we can't imagine Obama was too angry. He apparently planned to come out in favor of gay marriage a week later on The View before Biden sped things up, so really, the veep just saved Obama from several minutes of angry glares from Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Also cancelling on The View was ABC's Robin Roberts, herself, who apparently had to reneg on an appearance last minute when she got the sudden call to go do the biggest interview of her career. That's according to The Guardian's Tom McCartthy and Matt Wells, who reconstruct the behind-the-scenes decision to go with Roberts and ABC and get her to The White House last minute. Reading it, we can't imagine the ladies at The View much mind, given what a big get this was for their network.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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